I'm a Basketball Guy — But the FIFA World Cup May Convert Me

Canada first World Cup win, winning 6-0 against Qatar

I'll be upfront — I am not a soccer guy. Football, I should say, since I just got back from Germany and that's what the rest of the world calls it.

I'm a basketball guy first and foremost. I'll watch the other three major North American sports — NHL, MLB, NFL — on a limited basis. But football has never been my thing.

The FIFA World Cup is happening right now, with games being played right here in Toronto. Canada has played two games — one tie, one win. And I have yet to watch a single minute of either. 😂

A business trip to Germany may have just changed that.

Germany Has a Way of Making You Care About Football

I just got back from a week-long business trip in Germany, which included a global conference with colleagues from around the world. It became immediately clear how deeply invested people are in the FIFA World Cup right now — especially Europeans.

Multiple people at the conference knew that World Cup games were being played in Canada and asked me if I'd been watching. I had to admit I hadn't. The looks I got 😂

The level of investment was something else. During a full team dinner in a large private restaurant space, someone rolled out a TV on a stand and attempted to connect to watch the France vs Senegal game. They couldn't get it to work for some reason — but the fact that they tried, in the middle of a formal team dinner, tells you everything about how seriously people take World Cup.

Then I was in Munich meeting with local team members. At one point I casually asked one of them about their favourite sports team. He said FC Bayern Munich. I nodded and said "oh, the Munich football club" — just trying to acknowledge that yes, I understood it was a football team based in Munich.

He could immediately tell I had no real idea who they were.

His response: "It's one of the most popular teams in the world."

Yeah. Fair enough 😂

Two Unexpected World Cup Moments

On my Lufthansa flight back to Toronto from Munich, I was walking through the boarding tunnel when I noticed people stationed along the way handing out Germany national football jerseys. Free. They were organized too — one person per size, XL down to Small, so it moved quickly.

My first reaction was — that's a nice touch.

Then I checked online later and realized that the day after the flight landed was Germany vs Ivory Coast. Think about that. A Munich to Toronto flight the day before Germany plays in Canada. There are almost certainly fans and supporters on that plane who came specifically to watch the match. Germany made sure they'd be walking into that stadium wearing their national colours.

That's not just marketing. That's genuinely smart thinking. I noticed it from a business perspective immediately.

Then today — the day before Father's Day — we had lunch with my father-in-law. And he casually mentioned he'd been watching the World Cup games.

Mind blown.

I genuinely don't know what he typically watches. But if World Cup fever has reached his living room, it has reached everywhere.

Final Thought — I Have to Watch the Next Canada Game

Writing this, I keep coming back to how genuinely rare this moment is. The FIFA World Cup is being played in Canada. Tickets for the cheapest seats are going for $1,000 CAD and up. The city has been telling companies to let employees work from home on game days. This level of football energy in Toronto — in Canada — probably won't happen again for a very long time.

As of right now, Canada is actually leading Group B. A 6-0 demolition of Qatar gave them the goal differential advantage and puts them in a strong position. The next game is in a few days — Wednesday at 3pm against Switzerland.

3pm is tough. That's right in the middle of the work day.

But after everything I've seen this past week — the dinner TV, the FC Bayern conversation, the Lufthansa jerseys, my father-in-law watching from his couch — I think I have to find a way to watch this one.

Come on Canada. 🍁